Bildunsroman

This is not a bildungsroman. There isn’t any vertical growth by the characters. If anything, Francis maybe spread himself out (horizontally), but he doesn’t gain anything from this. This book is a real tragedy. O’Connor had to be making a point with this. She often wrote about backwards, and fundamental protestants and by the end of the novel brought them closer to the Catholic mind. Yet, in this novel she instead gave examples of what not to become.
Poor Francis was doomed from the start; he must take some responsibility for killing Bishop, but at the same time so do Old Tarwater and Rayber. They were both so concerned with their extremist views that they didn’t bother to teach Francis the values that should be provided by a family. Regardless of how you see Tarwater, he has failed as a prophet and a guardian. In the book that he preaches it states that it is better to have killed yourself than to cause a child to sin, and he has done just that. Tarwater is all talk, as seen in his hypocritical actions. If Francis had the Christian values he needed then regardless of what Rayber said to him, he wouldn’t have killed Bishop.